Intertemporal Choice of Fuzzy Soft Sets

This paper first merges two noteworthy aspects of choice. On the one hand, soft sets and fuzzy soft sets are popular models that have been largely applied to decision making problems, such as real estate valuation, medical diagnosis (glaucoma, prostate cancer, etc.), data mining, or international trade. They provide crisp or fuzzy parameterized descriptions of the universe of alternatives. On the other hand, in many decisions, costs and benefits occur at different points in time. This brings about intertemporal choices, which may involve an indefinitely large number of periods. However, the literature does not provide a model, let alone a solution, to the intertemporal problem when the alternatives are described by (fuzzy) parameterizations. In this paper, we propose a novel soft set inspired model that applies to the intertemporal framework, hence it fills an important gap in the development of fuzzy soft set theory. An algorithm allows the selection of the optimal option in intertemporal choice problems with an infinite time horizon. We illustrate its application with a numerical example involving alternative portfolios of projects that a public administration may undertake. This allows us to establish a pioneering intertemporal model of choice in the framework of extended fuzzy set theorie

Fuzzy rough granular neural networks, fuzzy granules, and classification

AbstractWe introduce a fuzzy rough granular neural network (FRGNN) model based on the multilayer perceptron using a back-propagation algorithm for the fuzzy classification of patterns. We provide the development strategy of the network mainly based upon the input vector, initial connection weights determined by fuzzy rough set theoretic concepts, and the target vector. While the input vector is described in terms of fuzzy granules, the target vector is defined in terms of fuzzy class membership values and zeros. Crude domain knowledge about the initial data is represented in the form of a decision table, which is divided into subtables corresponding to different classes. The data in each decision table is converted into granular form. The syntax of these decision tables automatically determines the appropriate number of hidden nodes, while the dependency factors from all the decision tables are used as initial weights. The dependency factor of each attribute and the average degree of the dependency factor of all the attributes with respect to decision classes are considered as initial connection weights between the nodes of the input layer and the hidden layer, and the hidden layer and the output layer, respectively. The effectiveness of the proposed FRGNN is demonstrated on several real-life data sets

An Improved Limited Tolerance Rough Set Model

Some extended rough set models in incomplete information system cannot distinguish the two objects that have few known attributes and more unknown attributes; some cannot make a flexible and accurate discrimination. In order to solve this problem, this paper suggests an improved limited tolerance rough set model using two thresholds to control what two objects have a relationship between them in limited tolerance relation and to classify objects. Our practical study case shows the model can get fine and reasonable decision results

Granular Space Reduction to a β

Multigranulation rough set is an extension of classical rough set, and optimistic multigranulation and pessimistic multigranulation are two special cases of it. β multigranulation rough set is a more generalized multigranulation rough set. In this paper, we first introduce fuzzy rough theory into β multigranulation rough set to construct a β multigranulation fuzzy rough set, which can be used to deal with continuous data; then some properties are discussed. Reduction is an important issue of multigranulation rough set, and an algorithm of granular space reduction to β multigranulation fuzzy rough set for preserving positive region is proposed. To test the algorithm, experiments are taken on five UCI data sets with different values of β. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm

Uncertainty and Interpretability Studies in Soft Computing with an Application to Complex Manufacturing Systems

In systems modelling and control theory, the benefits of applying neural networks have been extensively studied. Particularly in manufacturing processes, such as the prediction of mechanical properties of heat treated steels. However, modern industrial processes usually involve large amounts of data and a range of non-linear effects and interactions that might hinder their model interpretation. For example, in steel manufacturing the understanding of complex mechanisms that lead to the mechanical properties which are generated by the heat treatment process is vital. This knowledge is not available via numerical models, therefore an experienced metallurgist estimates the model parameters to obtain the required properties. This human knowledge and perception sometimes can be imprecise leading to a kind of cognitive uncertainty such as vagueness and ambiguity when making decisions. In system classification, this may be translated into a system deficiency - for example, small input changes in system attributes may result in a sudden and inappropriate change for class assignation. In order to address this issue, practitioners and researches have developed systems that are functional equivalent to fuzzy systems and neural networks. Such systems provide a morphology that mimics the human ability of reasoning via the qualitative aspects of fuzzy information rather by its quantitative analysis. Furthermore, these models are able to learn from data sets and to describe the associated interactions and non-linearities in the data. However, in a like-manner to neural networks, a neural fuzzy system may suffer from a lost of interpretability and transparency when making decisions. This is mainly due to the application of adaptive approaches for its parameter identification. Since the RBF-NN can be treated as a fuzzy inference engine, this thesis presents several methodologies that quantify different types of uncertainty and its influence on the model interpretability and transparency of the RBF-NN during its parameter identification. Particularly, three kind of uncertainty sources in relation to the RBF-NN are studied, namely: entropy, fuzziness and ambiguity. First, a methodology based on Granular Computing (GrC), neutrosophic sets and the RBF-NN is presented. The objective of this methodology is to quantify the hesitation produced during the granular compression at the low level of interpretability of the RBF-NN via the use of neutrosophic sets. This study also aims to enhance the disitnguishability and hence the transparency of the initial fuzzy partition. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology is tested against a real case study for the prediction of the properties of heat-treated steels. Secondly, a new Interval Type-2 Radial Basis Function Neural Network (IT2-RBF-NN) is introduced as a new modelling framework. The IT2-RBF-NN takes advantage of the functional equivalence between FLSs of type-1 and the RBF-NN so as to construct an Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Logic System (IT2-FLS) that is able to deal with linguistic uncertainty and perceptions in the RBF-NN rule base. This gave raise to different combinations when optimising the IT2-RBF-NN parameters. Finally, a twofold study for uncertainty assessment at the high-level of interpretability of the RBF-NN is provided. On the one hand, the first study proposes a new methodology to quantify the a) fuzziness and the b) ambiguity at each RU, and during the formation of the rule base via the use of neutrosophic sets theory. The aim of this methodology is to calculate the associated fuzziness of each rule and then the ambiguity related to each normalised consequence of the fuzzy rules that result from the overlapping and to the choice with one-to-many decisions respectively. On the other hand, a second study proposes a new methodology to quantify the entropy and the fuzziness that come out from the redundancy phenomenon during the parameter identification. To conclude this work, the experimental results obtained through the application of the proposed methodologies for modelling two well-known benchmark data sets and for the prediction of mechanical properties of heat-treated steels conducted to publication of three articles in two peer-reviewed journals and one international conference

NIS-Apriori-based rule generation with three-way decisions and its application system in SQL

In the study, non-deterministic information systems-Apriori-based (NIS-Apriori-based) rule generation from table data sets with incomplete information, SQL implementation, and the unique characteristics of the new framework are presented. Additionally, a few unsolved new research topics are proposed based on the framework. We follow the framework of NISs and propose certain rules and possible rules based on possible world semantics. Although each rule τ depends on a large number of possible tables, we prove that each rule τ is determined by examining only two τ -dependent possible tables. The NIS-Apriori algorithm is an adjusted Apriori algorithm that can handle such tables. Furthermore, it is logically sound and complete with regard to the rules. Subsequently, the implementation of the NIS-Apriori algorithm in SQL is described and a few new topics induced by effects of NIS-Apriori-based rule generation are confirmed. One of the topics that are considered is the possibility of estimating missing values via the obtained certain rules. The proposed methodology and the environment yielded by NIS-Apriori-based rule generation in SQL are useful for table data analysis with three-way decisions

Multigranulation Super-Trust Model for Attribute Reduction

IEEE As big data often contains a significant amount of uncertain, unstructured and imprecise data that are structurally complex and incomplete, traditional attribute reduction methods are less effective when applied to large-scale incomplete information systems to extract knowledge. Multigranular computing provides a powerful tool for use in big data analysis conducted at different levels of information granularity. In this paper, we present a novel multigranulation super-trust fuzzy-rough set-based attribute reduction (MSFAR) algorithm to support the formation of hierarchies of information granules of higher types and higher orders, which addresses newly emerging data mining problems in big data analysis. First, a multigranulation super-trust model based on the valued tolerance relation is constructed to identify the fuzzy similarity of the changing knowledge granularity with multimodality attributes. Second, an ensemble consensus compensatory scheme is adopted to calculate the multigranular trust degree based on the reputation at different granularities to create reasonable subproblems with different granulation levels. Third, an equilibrium method of multigranular-coevolution is employed to ensure a wide range of balancing of exploration and exploitation and can classify super elitists’ preferences and detect noncooperative behaviors with a global convergence ability and high search accuracy. The experimental results demonstrate that the MSFAR algorithm achieves a high performance in addressing uncertain and fuzzy attribute reduction problems with a large number of multigranularity variables